Tam Weng Ian, Candy

1. CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION IN CHINA: CHANGE OF INEQUALITY IN A DECADEPaper prepared for presentation at the American Agricultural Economics AssociationAnnual Meeting, Providence, Rohde Island, July 24-27, 2005ZHUO CHEN, DAVID B. EASTWOOD, STEVEN T. YEN Tam Weng Ian, Candy

2. Introduction • Childhood malnutrition is strongly associated with health risks in later life. • Health inequality  Adversely affects the labor supply and productivity of lower income households  Income inequality • This paper tried to analyze the inequality in childhood malnutrition in China and sources of such inequalities.

3. Methodology • A concentration index (CI) methodology is used • CI is a measure of health sector inequality. The CI and related concentration curve quantify the degree of income-related inequality in a specific health variable. • If the health variable reflects a “bad”, such as stunting, a negative value of the CI means ill health is higher among the poor and thus disfavors the poor.

4. Methodology • Procedure for decomposing the causes of health sector inequalities: • fitting a linear regression model, which represents the relationship between the variable of interest to a set of determinants • calculating the concentration indices of the health outcome variable based on the means of the explanatory variables. • decomposing CI using the results calculated in previous steps

5. Measurements of Malnutrition • Height-for-age (stunt) • Weight-for-age (underweight) • Weight-for-height (weaning) • Stunting is chosen - reflect the accumulation of long-term malnutrition • Underweight and weaning - easily affected by temporary shortages of food

6. Data set & sampling • Extracted from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), an ongoing project started in 1989 and followed up in 1991, 1993, 1997 and 2000. • A multistage, random cluster process was used to draw the sample in nine provinces in China.

7. http://www.sacu.org/provmap.html

8. Data set & sampling • Counties in these provinces were stratified by income & low-income cities were selected • Villages, townships (within the counties), and urban and suburban neighborhoods (within the cities) were selected randomly • Only children under age of 10 were subject of this study

9. 7 explanatory variables • Natural logarithm of per capita household income - measure of income level • Child’s age and its square term – to capture the potential nonlinear effects of age on the malnutrition status • Household head’s education – indicator of education

10. 7 explanatory variables • Dummy variable indicating boy • Dummy variable indicating urban residence • Dummy variable indicating whether there is a bus stop in the community - a proxy for road accessibility • Provinces - to accommodate regional differences

11. Descriptive statistics of the samples

12. Descriptive statistics of the samples • The stunt (height-for-age) z-scores are calculated with reference to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth chart, which applies to Asian children. • The decreasing trend, from 1.17 in 1989 to 0.84 in 2000, suggests an improvement in nutrition availability to Chinese children.

13. Descriptive statistics of the samples

14. Descriptive statistics of the samples • The childhood malnutrition CIs are −0.137, −0.113, −0.081, −0.152 and −0.136 respectively, for the five survey years. • The series suggests an improvement of equity in early 1990s, but it deteriorated thereafter and suggests children were slightly better off in 2000.

15. Descriptive statistics of the samples

18. Fitting a linear regression model

19. Regression results • Logarithm of per capita household income • The estimated coefficients are negative across all years  higher household income reduces the likelihood of stunting • Declining absolute value  decrease in significance

20. Regression results • Household head’s education • The coefficients have remained a little less than −0.010 and statistically insignificant (except for 1991) • Increased household head’s education reduces childhood malnutrition.

21. Regression results • Child’s age • An inverted U-shaped effect on the z-scores during the survey period (not statistically significant in 1991) • The turning points are slightly more than 4 years old • Consistent with the fact that young children receive more attention in Chinese households • Cumulative effects of malnutrition start to exhibit themselves after this age.

22. Regression results • Being a boy, surprisingly, does not make a child less likely to be stunted because the coefficient estimates were either insignificant or marginal significant.

23. Regression results • Urban dummy • The coefficient estimates are all significant and negative for the five years  urban children achieved better nutritional status • The absolute values of the estimates suggest that the rural urban gap increased over time

24. Regression results • Access to a bus stop • Estimated to have reduced the incidence of childhood malnutrition, for the first three cross-sections. • The coefficients are not significant for 1997 and 2000, suggesting the importance of access to a bus stop has declined over years, which is likely due to more communities having access to bus stops.

25. Regression results • Provincial dummy • Coefficients suggest that provincial differences in childhood malnutrition existed in the first three years but diminished after 1993. • Most provinces have become more similar with the economic development. • Effects of inter-province migration or economic development have outweighed genetic differences.

26. Regression results • Children residing in Guizhou were consistently behind those in other provinces given fixed level of other covariates, which may be associated with the fact that Guizhou had remained underdeveloped during the survey time period.

27. Calculating the concentration indices

28. Decomposition result

29. Decomposition result • Per capita household income and household head’s education disfavor the poor in the five survey years. • Additional years for a child’s age have a slightly positive contribution to the equity in childhood malnutrition after accounting for its nonlinearity. • Being a boy virtually has no contribution to the inequality. • Access to a bus stop disfavors the poor, but the magnitude has diminished and is close to zero in 2000.

30. Decomposition result • Residing in an urban area disfavors the poor, and the effect has been stronger over time. • Residing in the Northeast, Shandong, or Jiangsu favors the poor except in 1993. • Residing in Henan, Hubei, Hunan, or Guangxi has mixed effects on the inequality. • Residing in Guizhou disfavors the poor, whichmay indicate children in poor Guizhou households were more susceptible to stunting.

31. Policy implication • An income transfer program (targeting pregnant women, infants and children) may help to reduce the inequality in childhood malnutrition • Further efforts on providing low-income households with access to education would be beneficial. • Investment on infrastructure (e.g. communication infrastructure) improves equity. • Shift the focus of welfare programs to rural areas • Non-governmental organizations and programs aimed at reducing poverty and improving education in certain provinces should be encouraged.